Kaori Sakamoto, IMO, was the clear winner of the ladies' SP -- fast, confident and sure. Great ice coverage. Her jumps were the biggest, cleanest, and surest. Yeah, she backloaded the jumps, but as I said during Skate America, I think it was choreographed more thoughtfully.

I'dve had Satoko Miyahara about 2 points behind Sakamoto, not tied.

Rika Hongo is definitely not bowing out. She went out there and skated like she wants that Olympic ticket pretty badly.

Wakaba Higuchi's popped Axel was costly. Add back the 3.5 points that she lost and she'd be within striking distance of the title.

Mistakes from Mai Mihara (fall on 2Axel <) and Marin Honda (fall-out 3loop) have taken them out of contention, IMO.

Do we have a skate order for the final group of ladies? I'd like to try to YouTube this unspoiled.

This was Yuhana Yokoi's break out party. Nailed her FS. FYI, that first 2Axel pass was a tentatively planned triple!

Mai Mihara was seemingly out of Olympic contention after the SP, but regardless of whether she was resigned to that or not, she went out there and nailed her FS too! That's a competitor. I'm guessing she'll be off to Four Continents to defend her title there.

Wakaba Higuchi was one of my two personal picks for the Japanese team to Pyeongchang, but all in all she was a mere two rotations short over two programs. She started off well, but AGAIN, that DOUBLE Salchow, just like the Grand Prix Final. She held onto the rest a lot better here, but I'm seeing a pattern wherein she starts to give up on the performance once she kinda knows her ideal result may be going down the toilet. She's almost comparable to Gracie Gold in this sense -- loads of natural talent, athletic yet very pleasing to watch, yet starts to go downhill after a mistake. It's definitely hard to maintain performance after mistakes, but Wakaba is young and talented enough to learn from this experience and grow from there. She should try earnestly to wrest the Four Continents title from her countrywoman and then focus on next Olympiad. Work on that 3Axel too!!

...speaking of 3Axel: twelve years after an age-ineligible Mao Asada lands two 3Axels in her FS at Japanese Nationals, Rika Kihira follows suit this year with one of them in combination with a 3toe!!! Given Kihira will be age eligible for Worlds next season, I suspect there'll be more 3Axel attempts at Japanese Nationals next year.

Clips of Marin Honda's FS went AWOL on YouTube.

Rika Hongo wanted it so bad, but the falls and carrots did her in. Kudos to her for committing to the performance throughout. She'll likely be named to JPN's Four Continents Team, but half of me wonders whether this'll be Hongo's swan song.

Satoko Miyahara wins her 4th straight title as I suspect the Japanese Federation wanted. She's the most expressive of the Japanese ladies and her performance level is full out throughout, but she was also spared the review screen here. Satoko's scores were more clearly and obviously Nationally inflated than the other ladies' scores here were.

Kaori Sakamoto rode her wave of momentum from Lake Placid to Tokyo and more thank likely across the sea to Pyeongchang!

So i guess Rita Kihara landed the first triple axel/triple toes in ladies history, correct? Her second triple axel was even more impressive.

She landed the same combination at the Junior Grand Prix Final. I'm still not sure if she's the first, I've had some mention that Midori Ito and Tonya Harding landed this combination, but I haven't been able to find a competition when they did. I know I've seen video of Ito doing it in practice, but not in competition.

Tonya Harding landed 3Axel-2toe combination at the 1991 Skate America. She then singled the required 2Axel, so she finished second to Yamaguchi in the SP there.

Midori Ito landed 3Axel-2toe in her free skate at 1991 Trophee Lalique. There were clips of her NAILING 3Axel-3toe in the practice sessions there, but I don't recall her ever even trying it in competition.

Yukari Nakano and Mao Asada have also been credited with 3Axel-2toe, but Rika Kihira is the first lady to do 3Axel-3toe in competition.

I suspect that more Japanese ladies will be incorporating 3Axel into their competitive repertoires next season and I'm very excited at that proposition. In fact, there were several Japanese juniors that attempted it during this year's Japanese Jr. Nationals. Wakaba Higuchi was reportedly working on one and flirted with adding it this season. I've seen practice clips of Rin Nitaya and Kaori Sakamoto landing some in practice sessions and the latter even had a 3Axel listed as a planned element in her FS at either the Salt Lake Classic or at Rostelecom Cup, don't remember which exactly. Yuhanna Yokoi attempts them on occasion in Japanese qualifying events.

Japan will send Miyahara and Sakamoto to Pyeongchang, but Higuchi will join Miyahara at Worlds. Miyahara and Sakamoto will join Mai Mihara at Four Continents. Marin Honda's season is over, which I find a little surprising given how she's reportedly a media darling in Japan.

I read the same thing, Ellen, but it'll be interesting to see how it works out. The translation I read said the Kim said North Korea "may" send a team, not that they "will".

My understanding is that the pairs spot won by Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik at Nebelhorn has already been offered to Japan, an offer that the Japan Skating Federation has accepted. The North Korean skating federation failed to apply for the spot by the deadline, Oct. 30th, which is now two months past. So will the IOC un-invite Japan to let the North Koreans in, or just allow one extra pair?

That seems like it would be rewarding bad behavior if you ask me -- accepting North Korean athletes at the Games after the deadline just to try to placate their political leader, who also remarked that the "nuclear button" is always on his desk. Sounds like a threat to me!

I also read that the North Koreans, who are competitive in short-track speedskating, failed to send any athletes to the qualifying meet last month in Seoul. Here, again, the IOC will have to bend its own rules to include them. Since the organization is supposed to be fair and impartial, this is going to be a hard thing to justify.

Virginia wrote:I read the same thing, Ellen, but it'll be interesting to see how it works out. The translation I read said the Kim said North Korea "may" send a team, not that they "will".

My understanding is that the pairs spot won by Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik at Nebelhorn has already been offered to Japan, an offer that the Japan Skating Federation has accepted. The North Korean skating federation failed to apply for the spot by the deadline, Oct. 30th, which is now two months past. So will the IOC un-invite Japan to let the North Koreans in, or just allow one extra pair?

That seems like it would be rewarding bad behavior if you ask me -- accepting North Korean athletes at the Games after the deadline just to try to placate their political leader, who also remarked that the "nuclear button" is always on his desk. Sounds like a threat to me!

I also read that the North Koreans, who are competitive in short-track speedskating, failed to send any athletes to the qualifying meet last month in Seoul. Here, again, the IOC will have to bend its own rules to include them. Since the organization is supposed to be fair and impartial, this is going to be a hard thing to justify.

The IOC makes the rules, and one of those rules is that it can offer spots to any country it wants. North Korea boycotted the last Olympics in South Korea and both the South Koreans and the IOC are interested in preventing that from happening again. It may not mean anything, but South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham has tweeted that if the North Korean's compete at the games that the US should withdraw.

Hmm, does Lindsay Graham provide financial support to any of the US athletes? I get really annoyed when I hear our politicians talk as though they have a right to control our athletes. They have no skin in the game.

Well, neither Jimmy Carter nor his government provided support to the American athletes who were supposed to go to the Moscow Games in 1980, but as president he made the executive decision to boycott. (If anybody out there is too young to remember the events of 38 years ago, this decision was in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. Kind of ironic considering the events in Afghanistan over the past 16 years ... anyway, many other Western nations followed Carter's lead.)

But somebody needs to tell Lindsey Graham that he isn't president, he's only a senator and doesn't have the right to order a boycott.